Wheeler says Piazza will discuss PED use in the game at length, which could make for some interesting perspective, if not a bombshell revelation or a Canseco-esque outing of fellow ballplayers. He'll also touch on the bizarre Roger Clemens bat-chucking incident from the 2000 World Series as well as rumors of his sexual preferences, which inspired a bizarre news conference as well as a catchy tune from Scottish indie-rock darlings Belle and Sebastian.

Clemens, like Piazza, also was shut out out of the Hall of Fame in their first years of eligibility.

But the laid-back slugger, Wheeler said, wasn't chafing at not earning election.

Piazza received 58% of the vote, well short of the 75% needed, but 20% higher than Clemens and Barry Bonds. With PED suspicions surrounding Piazza never rising above the level of whispers, rumor and conjecture, his vote total suggests he will probably get into the Hall within a few years.

Piazza, a 12-time All-Star, is widely acknowledged as baseball's greatest-hitting catcher of all-time, with 427 home runs, a .308 batting average and a .922 on-base plus slugging percentage over 16 major league seasons - all after being a 62nd-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1988.

Still, he got frozen out of Cooperstown along with Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell and other contemporaries.

"He was laughing about it," Wheeler told Newsday. "I think he understood that the whole situation was so murky and complicated, and with nobody getting elected, that it was just an unpredictable scenario that he got caught up in. Frankly, he knew it was coming.

"I think, like I did, that he felt that he deserved it and was optimistic that he would get in and saw no reason why he shouldn't. But given the way the wind was blowing, he was prepared for that outcome."